Federal lawsuit filed against Monticello casino

A coalition that includes Orange Environment and the powerful national environmental lobby Natural Resources Defense Council filed the lawsuit yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The group, which also includes the Sullivan County Farm Bureau and the Catskill Center for Conservation, claims that the feds did not take a hard look at the proposed $600 million St. Regis Mohawk casino.

“An 800,000-foot casino that will attract six million people a year will fundamentally change the entire region,” said the NRDC’s legislative director, Richard Schrader.

“This is a life-or-death issue for Orange County,” said Michael Edelstein, president of Orange Environment. He said that a casino, when added to the nearby Bethel Woods Center for the Arts a few miles away on Route 17B, and future development in Sullivan and Orange counties, potentially poses a fatal combination of traffic jams and accidents up and down Route 17, as well as worsening air quality.

The coalition is asking a federal judge to stop the process, and force a more comprehensive environmental impact study.

The St. Regis Mohawks called the suit “nothing more than a desperate attempt to sabotage a project that will provide a much needed economic boost.”

“The organizations that filed this lawsuit do not speak for the vast majority of government leaders, businesses and residents of Sullivan County and the Village of Monticello who support this development,” said Tribal Chief Lorraine White in a prepared statement.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs has already taken a look at the casino site at the raceway. In 2000, the feds also OK’d the casino there. But then the Mohawks left the raceway and its management company for Kutsher’s Country Club and Park Place Entertainment. In November 2005, the tribe abandoned Kutsher’s and returned to the track, which is owned by Empire Resorts. The BIA approved the project a second time this past Dec. 21.

The timing of the lawsuit is interesting. According to sources in Albany, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is close to concurring with the BIA’s environmental findings and reaching a compact with the Mohawks – steps that would move a Catskill casino farther in the process that it has ever been.

Even if Spitzer should agree, however, the casino has several obstacles in the way.

Among these is that Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne must agree to take slightly less than 30 acres of land into trust for the casino.

The Mohawks say they’re still confident. '

“Tribal members and the residents of Sullivan County have all waited patiently for this development to come to fruition, and we look forward to the day when all can share in this project’s long-term economic benefits,” White said.